TWO women who fought over a former boyfriend ended up with a 'score draw' but only one of them made it into the dock.

At Exeter Crown Court, prosecutor Howard Philips said the fight happened in the entrance to a flat in Kingsway, Teignmouth, where 29-year-old Ceiridwen Malins and the other woman lived in separate accommodation.

The two had met one evening for a drink and everything was going well, to the stage where they swapped tops, but a row then erupted over a former boyfriend. The other woman punched the wall and told Malins to leave, dragging her out by the hair.

The prosecutor said that a little while later Malins, armed with a bottle and a knife, went back and demanded to have her dog back. When the other woman opened the door Malins threw the bottle into the flat and then lunged at her with the knife. The two were scrapping and clawing at each other until some men, who were present and at first took no notice, decided things were getting out of hand and pulled them apart.

Judge Philip Wassall said it appeared that Malins had come off worst in the incident, to which Mr Philips replied: 'It was something of a score draw.'

Mitigating, George Threfall said there had been complaints by Malin about the other woman before the night of this incident and it was 'an accident waiting to happen.'

He said the challenge for Malins was to address her alcohol and drug problems and she had been doing that while in custody on remand. She had already spent the equivalent of eight months behind bars.

Malins pleaded guilty to affray and was given a community order coupled with 18 months suspension.

Passing sentence, Judge Wassall told Malins: 'You should not be alone in the dock and you were not responsible for starting this incident. The injured party was the more violently involved but what you did in getting the knife and threatening her with it was inexcusable.

'If I had been dealing with this at the time I would have passed an immediate prison sentence. But you have served some time already and you should be addressing your drink and drug problems which have plagued you for years.'